U.S. Coast
Guard Administrative Law Judge
Edwin M. Bladen assessed a $250,000 fine and ordered the permanent
revocation of the federal fishing permit of the fishing vessel
Independence, owned by Lobsters, Inc., and the federal
vessel operator permit of its captain, Lawrence M. Yacubian,
for repeatedly entering an area closed to fishing.

"We are increasingly relying on satellite
technology to monitor fishing near closed areas, and this decision
supports the hard work that NOAA Fisheries enforcement agents
put in to protect marine fisheries for honest fishermen,"
said Bill Hogarth, NOAA Fisheries director.

NOAA Fisheries uses VMS to assist in monitoring
compliance with closed-area regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The F/V Independence
was required to carry a VMS unit. The scallop vessel was tracked
by the VMS from Dec. 9 to 11, 1998, as it made several incursions
into an area closed to protect spawning groundfish approximately
160 nautical miles off the coast of Massachusetts. The initial
VMS report put the vessel 1.36 nautical miles inside the area.
Using radar and other onboard navigational systems, the U.S.
Coast Guard Cutter Wrangell
also tracked Independence inside the area and confirmed
a second incursion.

"This case sets an important precedent
by holding that the VMS system in use on scallop vessels in the
Northeast is an accurate, reliable technology capable of producing
evidence of vessel activity admissible in a court of law,"
added Charles R. Juliand, lead NOAA prosecutor handling the case.

Judge Bladen found that Independence
repeatedly entered the closed area located approximately 160
nautical miles off the coast of Massachusetts. The judge also
stated that, together with a significant monetary penalty, the
removal of intentional violators would send a clear and loud
message to the fishing industry that purposeful and sustained
incursions into closed areas will bring meaningful sanctions.

"The significance of this case was
that the judge accepted VMS data as evidence that the vessel
was inside the closed area," said Special Agent Louis Jachimcyzk
of NOAA Fisheries Office
for Law Enforcement, case agent for the IF/V Independence
investigation. "This type of information had never been
used, on its own, to prove a closed-area case."

NOAA Fisheries is dedicated to protecting
and preserving our nation's living marine resources through scientific
research, management, enforcement, and the conservation of marine
mammals and other protected marine species and their habitat.